Personal Independence Payment (PIP) recipients can pay a small fee to access a discounts on products from Britain’s biggest brands
Disability benefit claimants are bagging bargains on sex toys and holidays. The discounts of up to 70% are available on paid-for private sector subscription services Purpl and the National Disability Card.
Luxury watches, jewellery and designer clothes are also featured on the schemes for disabled people. Users pay a small fee for access and must have a recognised physical or mental disability which affects their daily life.
Purpl users, which includes those on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) recipients, were reportedly offered 70% products from sex shop Lovehoney. Other promotions included £500 off selected TUI holidays, money off Jet2Holidays and reduced trips to Alton Towers.
The bargains on luxury items included 25% off watchmaker Rotary, reports the Telegraph.
Meanwhile, National Disability Card subscribers pay £20 for two years of access to online shopping discounts and reduced days out, including 25% off Disneyland passes.
Critics of the schemes shared concerns that consumers are paying to subsidise lower costs for other groups. Reform UK chairman Lee Anderson said PIP should be reserved for those who “genuinely need help” and not “to get discounted sex toys and luxury holidays.”
He said: “Living on benefits is becoming more attractive than going out and working, so much so that people are actively coaching others on how to exploit these schemes on social media.”
Purpl founder Georgina Colman defended the website, saying it is “privately funded by the brands, have no impact on welfare spending and exist to help reduce the extra cost of disability”.
She added: “Disabled households face significantly higher everyday living costs than non-disabled households. We believe disabled people should have the same freedom of choice as anyone else over where they shop and what they buy.
“Purpl is not a welfare scheme. Privately funded retail discounts should not be conflated with debates about how PIP is assessed or reformed. Our focus is, and always will be, helping disabled people reduce the extra cost of disability.”
Dianne Taylor of the National Disability Card scheme said: “The National Disability Card is a high security card giving disabled people a verified way to show they may need support, particularly when so many conditions are invisible. We founded it after caring for a family member with cystic fibrosis, and many of our staff are disabled people or carers.”
She said that the bargains were “funded by retailers at no cost to the taxpayer” and added “we make no apology for helping to ease” the extra costs disabled households face.